About

I'm a creative web and graphic designer from Groningen, the Netherlands. Born in 1984, started drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil and never stopped.I started out as an illustrator, drawing stuff mostly by hand with pencil on paper.. I 'discovered' the power of computers way later when I bought my first mac to start recording music. I pursued that for a while but it turned out it wasn't something I wanted to do for a living. So once I dropped out of the school of music I decided to get back to my first love: drawing.

My boyfriend Rene (now husband) was a webdeveloper back then and asked me if I wanted to be a web designer. First I thought no!, because I really didn't want to go back to school, but he said I wouldn't need that and that I could learn through the power of the internet. He then taught me the beginnings of HTML and showed me where to look for tutorials. 3 months later I had my first portfolio website up and running and was ready to apply for jobs.

I then had a few interviews at companies who said I was talented, but had too little experience. After one month I got my first job at a webdesign company called mediaCT that wanted to hire me and educate me as a junior webdesigner/ front-end developer. I studied hard and learned a lot from those guys in a very creative, professional and friendly environment. It almost felt like leaving the nest when after 2.5 years I found another job as a medior designer at Bonobos.

At Bonobos I got a chance to start managing projects and soon I became head of 'Design and Usability' and was able to hire 2 new designers. As the lead designer it was my responsibility to set and maintain the standards of design, to educate interns and to keep my team creative and motivated. I had a really good time doing all that, and I learned a lot of valuable lessons. While I loved being "in charge", after 2.5 years I really started to miss the hands on designing part of my job and I wanted to get back to designing by myself. So May 2013 I started a new job as a Web & UX Designer at Vevida.

After a few years working at Vevida I decided to take the leap and start my own business. As a designer I create my best work when I'm working for other entrepreneurs & start-ups. I also just love the start-up phase of a company where everyone's desire is just to grow and learn. At my own company Roadbear Studios (founded together with my husband René) we decided to never conform ourselves again and to always work outside of the existing paths and think outside the box. We feel we can really help small businesses and start-ups succeed with our creative products & energy and make them more visible to the world.

I really enjoy working as a designer/front-end developer and hope to never stop learning new stuff. I have real a passion for design, webdesign, front-end and usability and am always interested in new techniques, new perspectives and more books with beautiful stuff to read and look at.